“There was a tribe that lived back when I was born.” Zane took Bree’s hand in his and led her inside.The room they were in was a rich, deep, midnight blue and Bree felt she would get lost in the depth of the color.He motioned for her to sit in a chair by the fireplace and while she sat, still wondering what the hell was going on, he lit a fire.His arms were a stark grayish white color that contrasted with his black t-shirt.The studs on his belt glinted in the light of the fire as he moved to sit on a chair across from Bree.She still had his leather jacket wrapped around her shoulders and the scent of him was very strong on it.But it was wonderful, the most beautiful thing she had ever smelled in her life.It amazed her how a creature that lives on human blood could speak so smoothly that it was entrancing, and smell so… so… there were no words to describe what it was like. “This tribe, they were human and but they had powers that were super human.The vampires wanted to rid themselves of this nuisance so the vampires declared war on these humans.”
Zane went on to tell Bree about the war between the vampires and the mortals.There were many vampires that were killed, as well as many humans, in the course of this war that lasted one year.But, eventually, the vampires started to come out ahead.That was when Zane’s father met his mother.
Zane’s father had been a young vampire, turned during the war because of his military potential.He had been dragged out of his mortal life but still tried to hang on to his mortal dreams of what he wanted for himself in his life.The vampires and the humans were never supposed to mix with one another, and because of the hate between them, they never did.With the exception of Zane’s father, whose name was Arrio.
There was a young teenager, a girl of seventeen that belonged to the tribe.She was kept hidden deep within the rocky tunnels where the tribe camped.She was the chief’s only daughter.He wanted her safe and when the humans started to lose to the vampires, he feared for her and planned to move her.But before that could happen, Arrio led his troops down into the caves.They were able to slaughter all of the humans that stood against them for they had trapped them in their own fortress.The vampires had come in from all sides.Arrio was a great warrior and an even greater commander.
The troops finally reached the deepest part of the castle where the chief’s daughter was being hidden.Arrio found her hiding in a small cavern underneath where the chief and his last remaining troops cowered.When Arrio saw Jasmine, the chief’s daughter, he was overcome with her sweet beauty.Her face was dimly lit by the light of a single candle, and she was obviously terrified at seeing the vampire that had broken through all of her father’s defenses and found her. Arrio meant to eat her, but as he approached her she began to beg.But she did not beg for her own life, she begged for her tribe’s.It was her father’s great fear that all of his blood line would be wiped out.So Jasmine begged Arrio to spare just one.While this conversation took place, Arrio’s troops infiltrated the other rooms of the cavernous fort. They were able to kill the chief and most of his remaining men.However, a few managed to sneak away and escape the caves completely where they scattered into the night.
Arrio took Jasmine and led her away from the other vampires.He ran into the deep forest with her, promising her that she would be the one that he would spare.Grateful to him, she gave her life up to him, to be his slave.But he grew to love her and she him.They married but before Arrio planned to turn her, she found out she was pregnant.
Arrio and Jasmine went ahead with the pregnancy even though bearing a half vampire, half human child into the world had never been done before.There was no telling what would happen.They didn’t know if a monster would come of it or what.So they kept it a secret, they would bear the child and return to the kingdom when the war was over.But they were discovered and the remaining few of the tribe were told.Jasmine was labeled as a traitor by her own people. She had done the unthinkable. She had married and was going to have a child with the enemy.The very enemy that had nearly wiped out her father’s race.So, with the last of the power remaining in the quickly dwindling tribe, they performed a ritual to place a curse on the child that would be half vampire, half human.
Zane was eventually born and much to his parent’s great pleasure, seemed to be a normal, healthy child.But because of the tribal power in his mother’s blood, as well as his father’s vampiric powers, both which were bred in him, he was born with a greater power than the vampires or the tribe itself had possessed before as separate races. It was a mystery how Zane’s power came to be what it was, like how like cells in a young embryo decide which one becomes an arm and which one becomes a hair follicle when in the beginning they were all exactly the same. Fearfully, out of all the elements that mimicked life but yet could so easily destroy it, fire was the gift given to Zane.
Arrio eventually turned Jasmine into a vampire.She had begged him to, she wanted to stay with him forever, even though he had slaughtered her own people.But he had heard her pleas and spared her, and for that she was eternally grateful.
Zane grew up and stopped aging at twenty five.Everything about him pointed to the fact that he was born as a vampire.He learned about his great power early on and became spoiled and conceited because of it.But, he loved his mother deeply.She eventually told him the story of his birth.Then, she told him about the curse.Zane, angry that he was cursed as an act of revenge on his mother, became very isolated.He grew to associate all humans as one tribe, one human was no different than the other and in his mind, they were all likened to those few that had cursed him.Even though all of Jasmine’s tribe were eventually killed, and along with their extinction went their powers, Zane did not see it.He would not see it.And as he lived on, he grew to hate all humans.To him they all belonged to the race that had cursed his dear mother by cursing him.
The irony though, was that the tribe gave Zane a way to lift the curse.He had to come to love a human girl and make her his wife.She had to love him back.In their love they had to have a vampire child.The tribe knew that with the passage of time Zane’s hate would only grow. So, in sarcastic spite, they gave him a thousand years. Zane’s mother tried endlessly to teach Zane to forgive the humans, but if there was one thing he strongly disagreed with her on, it was that.The tribe knew that the chief’s daughter was stubborn.So, they figured that her son would be as well.Even though there was a way out of the terrible curse, they knew that there was little to no chance that Zane would overcome his hate enough to find it.
“What happens after the thousand years?” Bree watched Zane in fascination. Why was he telling her this?These were his deepest secrets, secrets that if found out could destroy his parents and create another war.
Zane then told her the worst part, the part about his doomed fate.At the onset of the thousandth year, he would begin to weaken and eventually lose his power over fire.At the completion of that year, if the curse was not satisfied, it would become permanent and irreversible.Zane would wither away, his vampire body would die a long and eternal death.His life would be strung out over forever the way the curve of a hyperbola continually approaches the asymptote, but he would never completely die.His soul would remain forever in his corpse, which would rot away but never completely disintegrate.
Bree just stared at the fire after hearing Zane’s story.Zane called her to look at him, he wanted to see her face, her reaction to his tragedy.When she turned her head and raised her eyes to him, they were wet with her tears.
